686 S. Debata
FIG. 1 (a) Gupteswar cave tourism and pilgrimage site in eastern India, showing the location of individual caves, villages, tourist rest houses and roads. The Saberi River acts as the boundary between the states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh. (b) The caves, showing the entrances and bat roosting and breeding sites. Cave openings without arrows are situated at a higher elevation and are not used as entrances.
TABLE 1 Comparison of knowledge on bats and attitude towards their conservation among 366 tourists and 76 local people visit- ing Gupteswar cave tourism and pilgrimage site (Fig. 1) during September 2016–August 2017. Per cent calculations are row-wise.
Statements
Bats are mammals Tourists
Local people Total
Local people Total
Local people Total
Local people Total
Agree, % (n)
16.7 (61) 3.9 (3)
14.5 (64)
Bats are ecologically important Tourists
Caves are important for bats Tourists
Disagree, %(n)
Do not know, % (n)
45.6 (167) 37.7 (138) 96.1 (73)
27.3 (100) 18.6 (68) 1.3 (1)
5.3 (4)
22.8 (101) 16.3 (72) 58.2 (213)
90.8 (69) 63.8 (282)
Human activities inside caves are a threat to bats Tourists
12.9 (47) 10.6 (47)
Local people 100.0 (76) Total
78.4 (287) 89.5 (68) 80.4 (355)
Bats & their roosting sites should be protected Tourists
37.8 (167) 47.7 (211) 54.1 (198)
93.4 (71) 60.9 (269)
41.8 (153) 9.2 (7)
36.2 (160) 8.7 (32) 9.0 (40)
10.5 (8)
32.5 (119) 51.4 (188) 16.1 (59) 44.2 (195) 42.5 (188) 13.3 (59)
their views regarding the conservation importance of cave dwelling bats. The interview was in Odia, the local language, or in Hindi, depending on a respondent’s preference. Based on the answer to the statement ‘Bats and their roosting sites
Species richness and abundance of bats During the entire study period I captured, and released, 140 individual bats of eight species in the five caves: Rhinolophus lepidus, Rhinolophus rouxii, Hipposideros ater, Hipposideros galeritus, Hipposideros speoris, Megaderma lyra, Megaderma spasma and Taphozousmelanopogon. Five species (R. lepidus, H. ater, H. galeritus, H. speoris, T. melanopogon) were re- corded in Swargadwara cave, four (R. lepidus, H. galeritus, M. lyra,
T.melanopogon)inParabhadi cave 1,three (R. lepidus, R. rouxii, H. galeritus) in Gupteswar cave, two (R. lepidus, M.
Oryx, 2021, 55(5), 684–691 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S003060531900098X
should be protected in cave tourism sites’, attitudes towards bat conservation were broadly categorized as aesthetic (con- cerned with the physical attractiveness and symbolic appeal of animals), moralistic (strong opposition to presumed cruelty towards animals), eco-scientific (aware of the eco- logical importance of bats) or negative (fear, dislike, or in- difference towards bats and their conservation), following Kellert &Wilson (1993).
Data analysis
I used a one-way ANOVA to examine any differences in abundance of bats between months and seasons, the correl- ation coefficient to investigate the effect of tourist visitation on the abundance of bats, and the Student’s t test to compare visits between festive and non-festive periods.
Results
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